I watched Glendale. There was a time when it would have seemed absurd to be getting a history lesson from what appeared to be a talking cat, but I was long past finding anything absurd. I’d always known the supernatural existed, but I’d only known about a small subset of it. I was beginning to understand I was only shown the tip of the iceberg. Although some of the new information was good—i.e. learning about Dragos and meeting Wyatt—most of it was stuff I wish I didn’t know. I wished I could take Wyatt but otherwise go back to the far more simple life I lived before. My biggest problem back then was proving I was as strong as my brother and his friends. Everything had been so simple. It’s funny how we make mountains out of every molehill. Well, maybe funny isn’t the word, but it’s something.
“You may be asking yourselves why the name Emerald Flame.” Glendale may have accused us of theatrics, but he was using plenty of his own.
I nodded, figuring the question was of the rhetorical kind.
“The name comes from the near-mythical story of the Emerald Flame.”
“Near mythical?” I blurted out. “What makes something near-mythical?”
Glendale narrowed his eyes down to tiny slits. “I thought you were done interrupting.”
“Sorry. I thought this was an important question to ask.”
He flipped his tail back and forth. “You thought asking about my choice of words was important in the scope of what else is happening?”
“I was just confused.” Once again. That feeling was getting old.
Wyatt gently patted my arm. “Continue please, Glendale.”
“I don’t really know why I’m bothering except I do. You two are our only hope.”
“Because of the war?” I still couldn’t shake the fear the use of the word had elicited. It was a word that wasn’t used lightly in the paranormal world.
“Would you please?” Glendale arched his back.
“Sorry. I really will stop interrupting.” At least I’d try.
“Good.” Glendale’s back relaxed. “The Emerald Flame refers to a flame more powerful than any other ever seen. It can heal—but it can also destroy.”
And where was this flame seen? I wanted to ask, but I’d just promised to keep my mouth shut. I would listen.
“The Emerald Flame was kept under top security. Protected by representatives of certain powerful families who would ensure no one ever used it.”
No one ever used it? But he’d said it could heal. I had so many more questions, but I’d promised to stop interrupting.
“The flame was supposed to be protected. But it was stolen.”
“Stolen?” I couldn’t help it. Keeping my mouth shut wasn’t one of my greatest gifts.
“Yes. Stolen.”
“And what happened?” I was on the edge of my seat now.
“It was recaptured.”
“So where is it now?” I would have stopped with the questions if Glendale would say more than the absolute minimum.
“After it was recaptured it was destroyed so it couldn’t be stolen again.” He looked down.
“Destroyed? How?” Something was off. Why had Glendale looked down?
Glendale sighed dramatically. “Ok. This part might not be your favorite.”
“Whose favorite?” Wyatt asked.
“Either of yours.”
“Meaning?” I leaned back, not sure I even wanted to know.
“Meaning the Emerald Flame isn’t just a flame.”
“Uh…” A lump formed in my throat. Then something hit me. An understanding.
“I see the wheels turning in your head, Hailey. Should I say it, or you?”
I couldn’t. I couldn’t say the words out loud.
“The Emerald Flame, although no one ever speaks of it, was really a creature. Well, it belonged to a creature,” Glendale continued.
“What kind of creature?” Wyatt asked although his eyes told a different story. He’d figured it out with me.
“A dragon. An emerald dragon whose fire matched his skin.” Glendale didn’t avert his eyes this time. He looked at us both.
“So that’s why she did that to me? She thought I could be it?” He frowned. “How could I have been part of an organization and know so little?”
“You are green... just not emerald. Veronica thought you’d be close enough.” Glendale’s licked his paw. It was disconcerting when he did such animal-like behaviors. It made me question why I was listening to him. “And as to your second question, this all happened before your time in the early days of the organization. The organization remained, but it’s purpose changed to a broader one involving balance. But you both know that part of the history I presume?”
Wyatt’s whole demeanor had changed now. Any semblance of his joking was gone. “Yes, we know that part. But about the dragon, my fire is reddish-orange. Wouldn’t they have known that?”
“That’s why Randolph needs the third. He believes if he had three magic wielders to act as vessels, he can return the Emerald Flame to the new emerald dragon and use its power.”
“But is there really a truly emerald dragon? Does one exist? I know of no other Drago with the green lined wings. I assume that has something to do with it?” Wyatt’s words were rushed and spilled out together.
Glendale had no difficulty following. “Yes. You are correct. But as I said, Randolph can foresee what is to come, and he felt one was in existence. Veronica got wind of you and thought you were close enough.”
“But I’m not.” Wyatt’s hands balled into fists.
“No. You’re not emerald.”
“Is there really one?” I repeated Wyatt’s question. That seemed pretty important to the situation.
“I don’t know for sure, but my bet is that it’s a Drago yet to be born…”
“Oh, my god.” My heart just about stopped beating. “Wait. Daisy?” My brother’s wife was pregnant—very pregnant—with a Drago.
Glendale tilted his head to the side. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
“There hasn’t been a new Drago born in years!” Wyatt’s eyes darkened. “Who else could it be?”
“Don’t take your anger out on me. I am only trying to share the information I have.”
“Are they safe? We need to get to them.” I would never let anything happen to my future nephew. Never. I knew he would be a boy because there were no female Dragos. Dragos always mated with other species.
“They are safe. I’ve seen to that.” Glendale watched me carefully. “I promise.”
“Wait. What? Where did you send them?” That was the first time I’d ever heard Glendale promise anything. I hoped that meant something.
“A safe place. I will say no more. In the event you are captured, I wouldn’t want you to unwittingly put them in more danger. Like your lack of education on our history, I also assume they did not properly train you to handle torture.”
His words should have worried me. Torture? But they didn’t. All I could focus on was my brother and his family. “If anything happens to—”
Glendale cut me off. “They will be fine. Thankfully Randolph believes the emerald dragon has already been born. He believes with your help he can track it down.”
“Back to the whole third thing?”
“Yes. Back to the third thing. Which is why you need to stay far away from him.”
“I was intending to.” I shuddered thinking about being used in that way.
“And he’d use Wyatt’s help too, so Wyatt needs to stay away.”
“We weren’t planning to get close.” Wyatt put an arm around me. It did nothing to stop the shivering and fear spilling through me.
“But you will if you can’t break those bonds.”
“We’ll break them.” We had to. I couldn’t let anything happen to anyone—especially my unborn nephew.
“I will give you two some alone time.” Glendale stood.
“Alone time?”
“It might speed up the process. Wyatt can explain all that to you, Hailey. I’m a
bit old fashioned when it comes to talking about such matters with a young woman.”
“Old fashioned?” I raised an eyebrow. “You? And you swear we are safe here?”
“I swear as much as a demon can.”
Wyatt crossed his arms. “Not very confidence building.”
“I want to be on the right side of this war. I also risked enough helping you with Daisy. Maybe you will understand that now.”
“Wait, you wanted the emerald dragon to be born?”
“As I told you before—the Emerald Flame can also heal.”
Heal? Was Glendale hurt? Was he worried about another?
“When will you be back?” What I was really asking was how much time did we have.
“When you’re ready.”
“And that will be…?” I needed real answers.
“When I’m back.”
“Gee, thanks for the enlightenment, Glendale.” I pulled my hair up and twisted it into a knot on the top of my head.
“I am always happy to help.” He winked before disappearing into thin air.
11
Wyatt
“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that cat.” Hailey stared at the spot where Glendale had just stood.
“I’d worry more if you did get used to him.” I wrapped my arms around her from behind. Despite everything, I was still floating with relief that she was safe.
“Are you okay with everything we just learned?” She turned in my arms.
“No. I’m not, but I know everything will be okay.”
“Yeah, that’s how I feel exactly.” She rested her head on my chest.
“We still have choices. I never want you to do anything because you feel boxed in.”
“I won’t let fear rule my life.”
“Good.” I kissed the top of her head. “If we do, they win.”
“Yes. ‘They’. The elusive ‘they.’” She picked her head up. “So about that whole let Wyatt explain it to you thing…”
“Yeah… I assumed you already figured out the gist of it yourself.” It’s not that I couldn’t explain it, but I didn’t want her to think I was somehow making up something just to get some.
“Well, I gather it has to do with sex.” Her lips twisted into a smile. “Not that I believe for a second Glendale was too embarrassed to talk about that subject in front of me.”
“He likes to leave on a dramatic note. And yes, you guessed right.”
“But I don’t see how sex can possibly help. Is Glendale just being… well, Glendale?”
“The idea is that intense emotions can help bring out dormant abilities. Sex can create many strong emotions.”
“Oh.” Hailey blushed. “I don’t really know what to think.”
“Clearly we can work on this in other ways.” Not as enjoyable ways, but I wasn’t going to say that.
“It’s not that having sex with you isn’t appealing.” She pressed her palm into my chest. “It’s really appealing.”
“Good to know.” I smiled.
“But I don’t want to ruin it.”
“You don’t want to ruin sex?” I made sure I was following.
“No. I mean yes.” She flushed again. “You know what I mean.”
“How would it ruin it? Not that I’m pushing you either way…”
“Because what if I associate sex with you and work or something? I plan to… uh, be getting intimate a lot with you over the course of our lives.”
“You do, huh?” I grinned. I couldn’t help myself.
“Yeah, I kind of thought that came with the territory of being mated.”
“Wait.” I cradled her face in my hands. “Mated? You’ve thought about it then?”
“I’ve more than thought about it.” She let out a slow breath.
“Yeah?” I could feel my grin growing even bigger.
“Your mom showed me the future. I get it. I get it all now. Well, not everything, but I get we are absolutely right together. I may be confused about what I am now and what we’re supposed to do and where we’re going, but I am sure about us. There’s no confusion there.”
“Wow. There’s nothing I’ve wanted to hear more.” I pressed my lips against hers.
She responded immediately, and I deepened the kiss. There were so many things I needed to tell her, so many emotions I needed to express, and somehow it was so much easier to explain it that way.
Her sweet taste overwhelmed my senses until I could think of nothing but her. Perfection. That’s how she tasted, and that’s how she felt in my arms. She broke the kiss momentarily, and I glanced around marveling at the full bedroom that had appeared around us. Evidently Glendale’s abilities worked on his created places even without him being there.
My heart was racing, need surging through me, and so I pushed thoughts of the cat-demon away. We ripped away each other’s clothing in a blur. This wasn’t the first time, yet we both knew how different it was.
We fell onto the bed. Lips, hands moving everywhere all at once. Her eyes were wide open watching me as I explored her body as if it were the first time—and the last.
“Wyatt.” There was urgency in her voice as she pulled me down on top of her.
“Hailey.” I looked deep into her eyes before I thrust into her, needing to connect with her on the most intimate level.
We moved together perfectly with an urgency that had never existed before, and then she started to glow. Hailey was already the most beautiful being I had ever seen, but with the added light her beauty reached an ethereal level. I knew I’d never be the same after seeing it.
I neared my release but resisted. I needed to make sure she was satisfied first. And I needed to stay with her light. I felt it. Searing through my bones, through my entire body. It felt as if we were flying high above the bed. We might have been for all I knew, because in that moment it was only us.
“Wyatt!” She called out her name as she held on to me.
I reached my release wanting time to stand still so I could live in that moment forever. I felt free, weightless, and completely at peace.
We lay there for what felt like hours afterward, even though it was only minutes. Each second was so packed with intensity it played games with our senses.
“Wow.” She stared up at me as I remained inside her.
“Wow is right.” I finally moved and rolled over to her side.
“Well, that didn’t ruin anything.” She ran her finger over my lips.
“I told you it wouldn’t.” I grinned. I was on an uncontrollable high.
“I know… but it’s awesome. I didn’t believe it could actually be better.” She ran her fingers down my arm.
“And to think what’s going to happen when you fully come into your new powers.” I brushed some hair away from her face
Her expression turned serious. “And what about you? How do you feel?”
“Amazing.” I did. I felt untouchable. A sensation of power surged through my bloodstream like nothing I’d ever experienced before.
“Does that mean you’re ready for me to get rid of those strings?” She leaned up on an elbow.
“Can’t you tell?” I rolled onto my side so I was looking right at her.
“Tell what?”
“You did it already. I’m free of Veronica.” And I owed it all to Hailey.
“We need to be sure.” She sat up.
I watched her gorgeous, bare body, unsure of how I’d ever gotten so lucky. “Is that your way of saying you’re ready for more?”
“No. It’s my way of saying we should get dressed and test it.”
“What does being dressed have to do with it? Can’t we figure it out without being dressed too?” I pulled and rolled her over so she was on top of me.
“Wyatt, we need to be serious.”
“I am being serious. Why the rush?” I was in no rush to ever leave that bed.
“Because otherwise we’ll never get dressed.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,”
I teased. I knew she was right, but I wasn’t ready for the magical experience to be over.
“Glendale said he’d be back when we’re ready. If you’re serious and I already took care of the strings, then he’s going to be back. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be found naked.”
“Good point.” I reluctantly moved so she could get up.
She pulled on her jeans. Then her black tank top. “You know you need to stop staring and get yourself dressed too.”
“Really? I kind of like this whole staring thing.”
“Of course you do.” She shook her head.
I got out of bed and stepped into my pants. “I love you.” The words slipped from my lips. They were words I hoped she already understood I felt.
“I love you too.” She smiled.
“When things calm down, we can actually spend some time together.”
“Do you think things will ever really slow down?”
“We can hope.”
“Yes, we can hope.” She nodded as if trying to convince herself.
“Do you think you should check…” She pulled on her boots.
“Check what?”
“That when you transform it’s to a Drago again?” She stood up.
“Oh…” I knew she was right, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous about it.
“I mean… I kind of need to do it too. Maybe we can both do it at the same time.”
“If someone didn’t know what we were talking about they might think you were talking about something else.” I grinned.
She frowned. “I’m being serious.”
“I know.” I put my hands on her hips. “Let me step away. I’m not taking the chance of hurting you.”
“At least we know I can bring you back to normal.”
“It’s amazing that the woman who can calm me down can have the opposite effect on me in bed.”
“Are we done with all the sex talk?” There was humor in her voice.
“Maybe.”
“Ok. Let’s do this.” Hailey transformed, her beautiful black wings extending from her back. She glowed, the same glow from before, only this time it surrounded her like a bright shadow of light.
Tempt_The Pteron Chronicles Page 8
